Kiln Dried Firewood

If you depend on wood fuel to heat your home, or you just enjoy relaxing in the warmth of your fireplace, you know the cost of firewood. Getting the most reliable and efficient fuel should be important to you. Who wants to buy expensive firewood that produces little heat output or fouls the air of your household? You would not want to spend most of your time cleaning your fireplace whenever you heat your home. So it is best to choose firewood that would not give you unnecessary problems of any kind. The best choice is none other than dried firewood.

Dry Firewood is Better

Kiln dried firewood is firewood that has been seasoned and dried in a kiln. When you cut down a tree, it is considered to have high moisture content. The wood is normally referred to as ‘green’ wood since it is still fresh and moist. Fresh firewood does not burn efficiently because of its moisture content. The moisture content makes it produce a great deal of combustion by-products as unburnt hydrocarbons go up the chimney. Consequently, it can lead to the clogging of chimneys and contribution of bad air quality. For these and many more reasons, fresh firewood must be dried before it is used for burning.

Classically, drying is done by leaving wood to sit out so that can lose its moisture content through evaporation. This can normally take several months. But you can dry your firewood in an enclosed space to speed up the process since ambient moisture absorption from the surrounding air is reduced. The fast and efficient way of drying firewood is by using a dry kiln. This can take only a few days or weeks. Dried firewood has a lot of advantages compared to fresh firewood. When firewood is dried excess water is removed making it lighter and easier to handle and transport. Dried firewood burns efficiently and does not produce undesired emissions which may pollute the surroundings.

Kiln dried firewood is both cost effective and reliable. For example if you take 10 kiln dried firewood logs it will produce the same amount of heat as 33 logs that has not been dried. That is over 3 unseasoned logs for every kiln dried one. This also means that you can get a hotter and more efficient fire with just a few dried logs. Dried firewood do not produce any soot and maintain a clean air even if you use it indoors. When used in an open fire, there is less splitting and produces a gorgeous and pleasant wood fire smell that you will love.

Proper Kiln Drying

There is art and science to kiln drying wood. Drying wood for burning is not as critical as drying for lumber, so it can be done more quickly wit less concern for warping or shrinking. Different wood species will have different drying procedures, but when done properly, it results in a lighter log of roughly the same size that burns cleanly.

Now the question is, cost? Yes kiln dried firewood is more expensive simply because the kiln drying process time and labor consuming. Anyway look at the bright side; it will always cost you more when you used firewood which has not been dried compared to kiln dried ones. Fresh firewood would make you spend a lot on things that you would not be necessary when you use dried firewood. In fact, when you take into account all the advantages of dried firewood like cleanliness and burning efficiency, dried firewood can be worth the investment.